Tom Hanks to Play Capt. Richard Phillips in Somali Pirate Hostage Story

Tom Hanks is attached to star as true-life high-seas hero Capt. Richard Phillips in Columbia Pictures' account of the international incident of an American ship captured by Somali pirates.

The project, with a script by Billy Ray, is being produced by Scott Rudin, Michael DeLuca, Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti, the team behind The Social Network.

Columbia picked up the life rights to Phillips, as well as his book A Captain's Duty, in spring 2009. The goal is to retell the story of the captain of the trading vessel Maersk Alabama who, in order to save his crew, surrendered himself to Somali pirates after his ship was hijacked. The standoff, which commanded worldwide attention, tested the strength of Phillips and his crew as well as the resolve of the Navy commanders and President Barack Obama to bring Phillips home alive.

Hanks, repped by CAA, just began shooting at Warner Bros. the Rudin-produced adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.